BMC plans to hike water cuts by another 10% in Mumbai

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) might increase the percentage of water cut by 5 or even 10% more, since the lake level has not increased much, despite rains in the city in the last few days, a senior civic official informed. A review meeting on this will be held two days later, based on which a final decision will be taken. Since the civic body has completely scrapped the option of desalinating sea water, cloud seeding or the idea to provide water through bore wells to meet the water shortage in the city, increasing the percentage of water cut is the only option left for the officials.

The civic body had contemplated desalinating sea water in 2009, when it faced a water shortage and had to implement a water cut of up to 30%. "However, the process is very expensive, so it is not feasible for the BMC," said additional municipal commissioner Rajiv Jalota, while speaking to media persons on Tuesday.

Asked why BMC couldn't desalinate water the way Chennai does, Jalota said, "The quantity of water that comes through desalination of sea water in Chennai is less than that compared to Mumbai. Here, BMC provides 3,750 million litres of water per day, so desalination will not be feasible currently as it would barely yield any water."

However, he added that the BMC will give permission to private societies for constructing bore wells in their premises. "We can give permissions to private societies if they approach us to seek permissions for bore wells," he said.

The city had faced a maximum water cut of 40% in 1993, when there was a severe water crisis in the city.